Loading order of textures

[Maddin25]

Hello,

 

on the sbwiki page i found the note about in which order the program tries to load textures. It is as follows

 

 

1. My Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\{current environment}\{nationality}
2. C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment}\{nationality}
3. C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland\{nationality}
4. C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment}
5. C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland

 

So to save some diskspace and workload i put certain texture files in the C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland\{nationality} folder for vehicles which have the same skin independent of the current environment, e.g. helicopters.

Now i have also put a german GD240 skin in the C:\Programs\....\de folder because i'd rather want a german woodland camo also in winter than a white washed (danish?) car.

But on winter maps the white default skin is still loaded. So it seems between point 2. and 3. there is another check for fitting textures in

C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment}

 

I have no problem to put those files in every mods\environment folder. I just want to ask if i'm missing something here or why it isn't working as i think it should. Thanks.

Edited March 10 by Maddin25

[Ssnake]

As a rule of thumb, never put your mod textures into C:\Programs\ or any if its subdirectories.

The complete search sequence is described in the user's manual, everything can be solved by putting texture files into the right place of the mods folder.

[Splash]

Yeah, it seems something weird is going on there. I think the Wiki entry (actually from the 3.002 release notes) has steps 3 and 4 inverted. IOW the path, in your situation, runs from mods/../winter/de (no file) to ProgramFiles/../winter/de (no file) to ProgramFiles/../winter (finds a stock file), and thus doesn't move on to ProgramFiles/../woodland/de, where your desired skin is located.

 

Try as I might, I've never been able to locate a "complete search sequence (as) described in the user's manual."

But in the end, it's best to heed the dev's advice to use the mod folders as intended. I say that even though I'm not a fan of the need to copy multiple iterations of the same file into various folders in cases like this.  

 

A one point, I wished for changes in the pathing that would poll all the MOD folders first ... (iow defaulting to the player's mod/woodland folder in the absence of a mod/winter, mod/desert, or mod/autumn file before polling any of the Program Files folders) ... but eventually realized that would present a similar need for duplicates in the event you wanted to use, say, a modded skin for woodland but were happy with the stock skin for winter or desert.

 

Maybe a better system will come with version 5. Possibly using different filenames for season-specific and/or modded textures? and allowing skins to be somehow chosen individually by vehicle type or left as default. And if it were possible to have that selection made in the Planning Phase rather than baked into the sce., a lot more flexibility might be possible. Who knows?

Edited March 11 by Splash
Changed my initial assessment of the problem.

[Splash]

One caveat to add here:

 

It seems that in the absence of a nationality folder in the Program Files/../"current environment", the sim does divert to the Program Files/../woodland/nationality folder forgoing the relevant winter, desert or autumn folder. 

 

Example: Desert map, DE1980 selected camo. There is no file for the LeoAS1 in the player's de1980 desert mod folder. The sim looks next for a de1980 folder in Program Files/../desert. There is no such folder, so rather than staying in the desert folder (where there is an Australian LeoAS1 texture, by the way), it looks next to Program Files/../woodland/de1980, and finds a texture in that folder. End of search. Load German texture.

But, in a winter theme, after finding no texture in the player's de1980 winter mod folder, it looks next for a de1980 folder in Program Files/../winter. It finds a folder but no LeoAS1 texture there, so it loads the snow-covered Australian camo skin living in the Program Files/../winter folder, rather than jumping to the Program Files/../woodland/de1980 folder as it did in the desert map. 

It is for this reason that I have copied eSim's German skin for the LeoAS1 to my winter/de mod folder, so I don't have a snow-covered Aussie tank in the Bundeswehr. 😉

 

Sorry that's vastly confusing, and again, all of this is moot if you just stick to the mod folders for mods ... but I understand now why Maddin25 was seeing what he saw. Stated slightly more simply: In his case, the de nationality folder in the winter folder causes the sim to look for a file in the winter folder before moving on to the woodland folder. If there were no de nationality folder in the winter folder, the sim would forgo the winter folder altogether and load what's in the woodland/de folder. 

Edited March 11 by Splash

[Maddin25]

Splash, you really understood my "problem" and thanks for explaining it in detail 👍

Well, it isn't really a problem since i know to just use the mod folders and copy textures to every theme folder.

But you seem to be right that point 3 & 4 in the loading order are inverted. 

 

I just like to know how programs, which i use a lot, work. By testing out things like this, fully aware that i'm going on my own risk.

And here i just wanted to know if the stated loading order is correct as it didn't seem to be the case by the outcome of my "tests".

 

 

[Splash]

7 hours ago, Maddin25 said:

But you seem to be right that point 3 & 4 in the loading order are inverted.

 

 

 

Well, don't be too quick with your praise. 🤔 I sort of went down a rabbit hole there. With my second post I probably should have deleted or re-wrote my first one. Another day, a little more clarity (I hope), let me rephrase what I believe happens.

 

The steps from the 3.002 Release Notes are not necessarily inverted, as I thought. But it's kind of misleading. And that might be because version 3.002 was several years ago.

It does, actually work that way -- when there is no relevant nationality folder within the relevant seasonal folder. But the presence (or lack) of said nationality folder also plays a role, and is why your particular action didn't yield the expected results. 

 

Picture this:

1 My Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\{current environment}\{nationality}
2 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment}\{nationality}
3 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland\{nationality}
4 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment}
5 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland

 

Note the red text in step 2. The sim looks for that folder. A lack of this folder in the installation results in the next step (3) being followed. The presence of this folder in the installation (but no relevant texture) results in a jump to step 4. Beyond that point, if there's no file, I think it zigs back to step 3 and then step 5, but I'm not positive. I can't really test it without making my head hurt or altering files, and I think it's time for me to climb out of the rabbit hole and step away from it.

 

In summation, you can kind of see this whole theory in practice with the desert folder. Note the ru2020 folder. No textures in it, but It's presence directs the search next to that base desert folder rather than taking the early sidetrip to woodland/ru2020. 
 

Edited March 11 by Splash

[Maddin25]

Splash please don't break your mind about this. 

As i said the topic is not really a problem i need to find a solution for. You have done enough already to help me understand what's wrong here...something in the loading order, what exactly isn't important enough to go till the end of the rabbit hole. 😉

 

I have put the textures also in Program Files/../winter/de and than they were loading. But at this point i can and will use the mod folders instead. At the end it's less elaborate than what we tried to figure out here.